I'd have to say Pandaren; the male model is very good, and the female model could definitely use some work (weird looking cloaks, shoulder armour sitting strangely upon the shoulders, etc).

The lore however, seems like a constant, desperate quest for legitimacy and justification; to the point where it was able to induce a 180 on Blizzard's original notion of a 'light-hearted' expansion; practically everywhere beyond Jade Forest (and even then, Jade Forest is mostly serious) having been made rather grim and gritty, just so the Pandaren are acknowledged as being serious also.

Worgen come a close second; my favourite starting zone by far but...that's the last you ever hear of them in any significance.

"A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is 'merely relative,' is asking you not to believe him. So don't." - Roger Scruton

Originally Posted by Wells

I see no point in compelling integration. If you can't make your society sufficiently enticing to integrate willingly, then perhaps its not so superior.

where to start.
draeni - oh how i hate that godforsaken shitty piss island they live on.. the quests dont flow either.
tauren - its like pandaren starting zone.. walk 30 miles to every quest mob.... plus taurens really dont have anything going for them.. they've been like.. forgotten ever since cairne got killed.
gnomes - just about as useless as draeni and the nordrassil starting area.

blood elves arent bad - people percieve them as girly but honestly..belf pallys are way more fun then taurens imo. plus their starting zone rules... it seems long but its really easy to lvl in... lore kinda sucks but its whatever....
goblins - the only complaint is the terribly long quests for the starting area.. even worse then worgen and tied with pandaran...

Makes me sick to my stomach that for the alliance side of things they're trying to make Variyan "high king" of the alliance with the likes of Tyrande and Velen bowing to him. What the hell is that kinda crap story writing?

I believe this was done as a response to all the Alliance crying over not being as badass as the Horde. So Blizzard made sure to make the Alliance like the Horde.

For instance, take Exodar(draenei capital), there's no reason for any alliance race to actually go there other than the world explore achievment which is a real shame, it's a freakin spaceship with a ton of lore, but they've done nothing with it..

My #1 probably is Night Elves.
From a story point of view they've just been getting worse and worse to the point where they seem to have none of the great aspects they had in WC3 , they had their society shift from what was a very Sentinel driven society of Warrior Women and Priestesses who were very hard line in their approach to matters move to a very liberal and neutral Druid dominated society that seemed to get the vast majority of it's story from the Cenarion Circle.

#2 is definitely Draenei. Even during TBC their story felt rather over shadowed by the Blood Elf story despite the vast amount of opportunity they had to develop what was at th time a completely new race because of the retcon to the point where their most notable action of the expansion was aiding Horde rather than an action that would make players actively accept this new race into the Alliance. Since then they have been the least seen and progressed race in WoW which is a crying shame.

#3 would have to be Worgen due to their bad story development. While their story was great we're all by now aware that to see their story progress you need to play the other faction, and from an Alliance POV they as a race don't exist past level 12 and if you don't play a Worgen then there is no major place to see their story unfold. They feel very much like the Draenei where they were introduced then left to gather dust.
Game wise they never got a mount despite some of the awesome concept art they had shown us, on top of this there was the lack of rumoured Worgen district which instead saw them relegated to copy pasted glowy tree in Darnassus.

I could bitch further about something all three share in common and it begins with an A.

My #1 probably is Night Elves.
From a story point of view they've just been getting worse and worse to the point where they seem to have none of the great aspects they had in WC3 , they had their society shift from what was a very Sentinel driven society of Warrior Women and Priestesses who were very hard line in their approach to matters move to a very liberal and neutral Druid dominated society that seemed to get the vast majority of it's story from the Cenarion Circle.

#2 is definitely Draenei. Even during TBC their story felt rather over shadowed by the Blood Elf story despite the vast amount of opportunity they had to develop what was at th time a completely new race because of the retcon to the point where their most notable action of the expansion was aiding Horde rather than an action that would make players actively accept this new race into the Alliance. Since then they have been the least seen and progressed race in WoW which is a crying shame.

#3 would have to be Worgen due to their bad story development. While their story was great we're all by now aware that to see their story progress you need to play the other faction, and from an Alliance POV they as a race don't exist past level 12 and if you don't play a Worgen then there is no major place to see their story unfold. They feel very much like the Draenei where they were introduced then left to gather dust.Game wise they never got a mount despite some of the awesome concept art they had shown us, on top of this there was the lack of rumoured Worgen district which instead saw them relegated to copy pasted glowy tree in Darnassus.

I could bitch further about something all three share in common and it begins with an A.

My #1 probably is Night Elves.
From a story point of view they've just been getting worse and worse to the point where they seem to have none of the great aspects they had in WC3 , they had their society shift from what was a very Sentinel driven society of Warrior Women and Priestesses who were very hard line in their approach to matters move to a very liberal and neutral Druid dominated society that seemed to get the vast majority of it's story from the Cenarion Circle.

#2 is definitely Draenei. Even during TBC their story felt rather over shadowed by the Blood Elf story despite the vast amount of opportunity they had to develop what was at th time a completely new race because of the retcon to the point where their most notable action of the expansion was aiding Horde rather than an action that would make players actively accept this new race into the Alliance. Since then they have been the least seen and progressed race in WoW which is a crying shame.

#3 would have to be Worgen due to their bad story development. While their story was great we're all by now aware that to see their story progress you need to play the other faction, and from an Alliance POV they as a race don't exist past level 12 and if you don't play a Worgen then there is no major place to see their story unfold. They feel very much like the Draenei where they were introduced then left to gather dust.
Game wise they never got a mount despite some of the awesome concept art they had shown us, on top of this there was the lack of rumoured Worgen district which instead saw them relegated to copy pasted glowy tree in Darnassus.

I could bitch further about something all three share in common and it begins with an A.

What's wrong with druidic centered society? Malfurion mainstreamed druidsm in NE society and females are overrated anyway. I never like Tyrande in the first place.

Of all the playable races in WoW, which races (in design, WoW-storyline, etc) do you think Blizzard dropped the ball on the most?

I'm gonna go with Blood Elves. After playing TFT, I almost immediately made a Blood Elf when I upgraded to BC just because they were so badass in TFT, and I was horribly disappointed with how their model was, how unseriously a lot of them were taken, and how the badassness that I felt they were in TFT had disappeared. Stuff like Johnny Awesome and the Belf from the "Day when Deathwing came" quest don't really help either.

My 2nd place is Draenei. With all the unexplored lore with Argus, the betrayal by Kil'jaden/Archimonde, the Naaru, it's really disappointing that the Draenei have really been forgotten about.

So, so true. Whenever you play a blood elf and people findout that you're not that 12 year old kid that wants to look pretty, they ask you "why roll gayelf?". Then you have to go on and explain the WCIII Frozen Throne storyline all over again.

BElves. My main is a BElf. I never really understood the race as a whole, as I started in the end of WotLK so I missed out on the lore in TBC raids. From what ive gathered, they are Sunwell addicts and now addicted to arcane energy? Still don't understand why the Alliance didn't accept them.

I would of loved more Worgen lore. I love playing as a Werewolf, and they look so gorgious. Unfortunatly Gilnaes is it. It was such a damn good starting zone as well, but unfortunatly it stopped there, then I haven't heard a peep from them since.

And as a noobish player, Drenai are aliens? Having never levelled some Alli characters, I didn't know that. Interesting.

I dislike the revamped Draenei lore.
Worgen were ruined for me with the Cata re-envisioning of them.
Forsaken are often lacking in their "barely not-evil" atmosphere, I seem to remember them doing a lot of dodgy stuff during classic, we had some of that in the Cata revamp (hillsbrad is godly), but it seems only bad-apples in the forsaken group are doing it, then being punished, rather than it being borderline condoned.

Blood elves I think had the ball dropped the most, but after 5.1 I'm a bit more optimistic - never thought I'd find myself thinking "Lor'themar for warchief", but he's a really cool guy when he's actually DOING something, 5.1 was fabulous as a horde player.

What's wrong with druidic centered society? Malfurion mainstreamed druidsm in NE society and females are overrated anyway. I never like Tyrande in the first place.

The fact it's society essentially did a complete U-turn.
You can prefer the Druidic society or Sentinel and Priestess society either way it doesn't change the radical change Night Elves and Tyrande had when they were introduced to WoW and their continued lack of meaningful progression that doesn't consist of Tyrande and the Sentinels being damsels in distress for Varian or Malfurion and his Druids who are developed more via their use as a neutral faction than as part of the Night Elven people in the Alliance.

The fact it's society essentially did a complete U-turn.
You can prefer the Druidic society or Sentinel and Priestess society either way it doesn't change the radical change Night Elves and Tyrande had when they were introduced to WoW and their continued lack of meaningful progression that doesn't consist of Tyrande and the Sentinels being damsels in distress for Varian or Malfurion and his Druids who are developed more via their use as a neutral faction than as part of the Night Elven people in the Alliance.

Because Malfurion>Tyrande and Metzen agrees with me . To be serious, Tyrande has always been pretty stupid and reckless so I don't really have a problem with her not getting much attention.